Jamie Goddard Band

We LOVE performing at the Alhambra Theater, a HUGE stage, an awesome PA, soooo many wicked lights, 2000 seats over 2 tiers and an awesome crew to work with!Jacko, Stage Manager, Gerry on sound, Mike on lights and Greg backstage are just brilliant. We opened the show with our new animated introduction which shows The Zoots coming from home to the stage. We have adding so many things to the show and we were really looking forward to showing them off.

This is the second part of the Blog for our Good Friday show at The Beacon in Wantage, (did you catch up with our antics in part 1?) The show was so good, and we had so many photos and videos from the night, that we had to put it in two parts! At the end of the first show, no one could quite believe what Jamie had done with his guitar! In the break we put on our new costumes which consisted of some Red Guards jackets, as featured in our photo shoot with Michael Randolph last summer. The set started with a new one for us; Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club band followed by ‘With a little help from my friends’ which were originally recorded 50 years ago!

This year has got off to a great start. It began in Cuba, and then Jamaica, which was just amazing!! Then we headed back to the UK where we’ve had lots of shows keeping us busy. Our performances have taken us to Bath, Oxford, Hertfordshire, Coventry, Taunton, and that’s all before February has finished! And today we’re heading to North Wales, to perform at the lovely Bodelwyddan Castle.

We set off early as we had a long drive ahead of us. The journey was fun as we played ‘guess the film score’ game with Ben’s new bluetooth speaker.

We arrived in good time, and the team at Bodelwyddan Castle showed us to the ahem…*cue proud moment*… ‘Lowther suite’ where we would be playing that evening! You could say it was made for me! hehe!Continue reading

Sid and I met when we were both around ten months old, at that time, little did I know he would end up be the best friend I could ask for. Growing up in Maidenhead, we journeyed through school life together, making memories and creating mischief. We were each others houses nearly everyday until we were ‘grown ups’ and left home. We’ve been on holidays together, he was an usher and my wedding and Sid has been a guest vocalist in the band with us more times than I can remember. Sid is like a brother to me, so his wedding to Amanda was pretty much as special as weddings get.Continue reading

It’s Thursday today isn’t it? Or perhaps it’s not. We’ve been so busy performing overseas and ship hopping with Royal Caribbean’s fleet of pretty impressive ships, that we’re not sure where we are or quite what day it is. We’ve gotten used to falling asleep in one country and waking up in another. We’ve become accustomed to the ever changing view from outside our window. And we’ve become very fond of having shorts, t-shirts and summer hats making up our ‘every day wear’ as we travel from Greece, to Italy to France to Spain. We’ve got a little too familiar of the feeling of sand beneath our toes as we relax after a show on a beach in whichever country we happen to arrive in that day. And we’ve become all so used to the roar of 1,500 guests as they shout for an encore following our sixties show.

The Zoots have been very busy recently and been travelling all over the place by planes, train and luxury taxi’s. Two weeks ago we had the pleasure of performing three shows at the very impressive The Amber Theatre. We set up for souncheck where we met our seven members of the crew. Here is a picture of Liam, our fantasic sound man and a few pictures from our stage set up and soundcheck.Continue reading

OK, so today is a preeeeety special day. We’re always very excited and very fortunate that lots of couples choose us, The Zoots, to be there wedding band which on a day they’ll never forget. It really is a very lovely thing and gives us a very warm feeling to be part of something so memorable.

But today is a little bit different. Today one of The Zoots drummers, Simon Small is getting married! We’ve known Si for three years now and he plays with us whenever Master East isn’t available. We just love playing with Si, he’s great fun and very talented. Over the years, we’ve got to know Si and Emily as a couple and we’re really lucky to be able to call them our friends. So when Si popped the question on the Christmas Eve 2013 to his beautiful girlfriend Emily, we were absolutely thrilled to hear the news. They are just perfect together. We jumped to offer to perform for them both on their most special of special days. They said yes and the countdown to the wedding began. Continue reading

Let’s travel back to the 31st of March 2014. An email pings in. I can hear it. It’s from Amy and Ian. Hello Amy & Ian (they sound very lovely). They are getting married on the 7th of March 2015 and wondered if we’re available to perform for them. They just love the 60’s music and knew we were the perfect fit! We said yes and the date was booked!

We have some GREAT NEWS. We are performing at The Beacon Wantage on Friday the 10th of April 2015 with our 1960’s show. It’s going to be totally rockin’. We’ll be playing 2 hours of 60’s music, complete with costumes and some questionable dance moves. Singing along, dancing and moving is encouraged throughout. You’ll hear the hits from the greats of the 1960’s such as, Elvis, The Beatles, The Kinks, The Who, Neil Diamond, The Rolling Stones and loads more! There are just so many!! So, if you love music, love the sixties, love dancing and generally love having a good time, get your tickets now! They’re selling like hot cakes so you might wanna be quick.

The Beacon Wantage is a pretty cool space, which, in 2014 underwent a huge refurb, so it looks very amazing. There’s a fab bar and cafe area and loads of parking!

So if you’re thinking of booking us for your wedding, party, event, this would be a great opportunity for you to come and watch us perform. Or maybe you’ve already seen us or booked us and want to see us again!

1960’s attire is thoroughly encourage so ladies don on those white knee high boots, start spraying those beehives into place, and airing out the mini skirts. Men, grab your wild crazy prints, stripes and flamboyant patterns or even your crushed velvet or slim fit, tailored suits as this is a night of sixties to remember!

It’s 9am, we’re up early, bound for Camber! Today is the 11th of October (*cough* my birthday), the day of Liz and John’s wedding! Coffee is the drink of the morning, and lots of it following our gig in Plymouth the last night. A gallon of coffee, a few glasses of juice, a couple of boiled eggs and a bowl of porridge later, we’ve jumped in the band van and were raring to go! It looks kinda rainy-sunny-rainy-sunny. It’s just Zoots lead guitarist Ben, Jamie & I this morning. Drummer Mike and Bass player Stuhoney will be joining us later on for the evenings celebrations. Continue reading